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Author Notes:Blueberries are tucked into a wholesome rye crust to make this delicious pie for a crowd. I don’t mind if my pies are big, juicy messes so I gave this slab pie a lattice top. For a less juicy mess; roll out the second crust, lay it over the berries and fold the bottom edge up over the top and seal well by pressing firmly with the tines of a fork.

edited 7/7/2014: Some folks had trouble with the amount of water in the crust recipe and it has been updated to reflect those comments. —Yossy Arefi

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Serves 12 to 16

Crust

9
ounces all-purpose flour

9
ounces rye flour

12
ounces unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes

1
teaspoon salt

8 to 12
tablespoons ice water

1
tablespoon apple cider vinegar

To make the crust, combine the flours and salt in a bowl. Use your fingers or a pastry cutter to cut half of the butter into the flour until it is the size of peas, then cut in the other half until it is the size lima beans. Some of the butter will be completely worked into the flour, but you should have lots of visible pieces of butter in the dough, too. Add the apple cider vinegar to the water and make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Use a gentle hand or wooden spoon to mix about 8 tablespoons of water into the flour until just combined. If the dough seems very dry, add more water a couple of teaspoons at a time. You have added enough water when you can pick up a handful of the dough and squeeze it together without it falling apart. Press the dough together, then split it in half, form into discs, and wrap each disc in plastic wrap. Chill the dough for at least one hour before using, or overnight.

Filling

5
cups blueberries, about 2 1/2 pints

1
cup sugar

1/4
cup flour

1
pinch salt

Zest of one lemon

1
teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1
vanilla bean, seeds scraped

1
egg for egg wash

3
tablespoons crunchy sugar to finish

Preheat oven to 400º F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Gently toss the blueberries, sugar, flour, salt, lemon zest, ginger, and vanilla bean seeds in a bowl until well combined.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out one piece of the dough into a roughly 8- by 12-inch rectangle, 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick. Gently move the dough to the prepared baking sheet and put the whole thing in the fridge. Roll out the other piece of dough to roughly the same size, erring larger rather than smaller, and set it aside for a moment.

Remove the dough from the fridge and pour the blueberry mixture on top, leaving a generous border of at least 1 1/2 inches around the edges.

To make a lattice top, cut the remaining dough sheet into 1-inch strips and starting from the top left corner of the pie, lay one strip of dough horizontally and one strip vertically, so that the horizontal strip is on the bottom. Lay a second horizontal strip about 1/2 inch below the top strip so that it overlaps the vertical strip. Fold the top horizontal strip to the left and lay another vertical strip about 1/2 inch to the right of the first one. Next, fold the top horizontal strip back over it. This way, the second vertical strip will go underneath the top horizontal strip and over top of the second horizontal strip. Fold the first vertical strip up and lay down a third horizontal strip. Fold the vertical strip back down. Next, fold the second horizontal strip to the left and place a third vertical strip. Fold the horizontal strip back over the pie. Fold the middle vertical strip up and lay down the fourth horizontal strip. Fold the top and third horizontal strip to the left and place a fourth vertical strip. Continue until all strips are used and the top of the pie is covered. You may have to piece some scraps together to make the last few strips of dough. Fold the bottom crust up and over the top of the pie and press firmly with a fork to seal.

Alternately, do not cut the remaining dough into strips, but rather lay it over the blueberry filling in one piece, fold the bottom crust up over the top and seal the edges very well by pressing firmly with the tines of a fork, cut a few vents in the top and proceed with the recipe as follows.

Put the baking sheet into the refrigerator or freezer until the crust is very firm. When you are ready to bake, brush the top of the pie with a beaten egg and generously sprinkle it with sugar. Bake the pie until the crust is deep golden brown and the juices are bubbling, 35 to 45 minutes. Cool slightly before cutting into squares and serving with ice cream or whipped cream.

Note: Be prepared; a lattice-topped pie will probably leak, so do not forget to line your pan with parchment paper.

The filling has such a great flavor- best blueberry filling I've had. The crust tastes great too but was a pain in the butt to roll out. I gave up on the lattice and ended up patchworking it on there, giving it a tortoise-like appearance. I will make this recipe again but either with a regular crust or in a tin.

I am curious if another type of flour can substituted for the rye. I usually do not care for the flavour. I have had luck with your spelt crusts and wondered if I could use spelt flower. I appreciate any suggestions. Thank you

Hi, I have not tried this recipe, but I will be trying it very soon. I wanted to say that you must understand that, with regard to wetness of the dough, you must pay attention to your environment/climate/time of the year. For example, humidity will play a big part in the wetness of your dough. So if you are in an area that is more humid, this time of the year, then your dough will be a bit wetter and you will have to lessen the amout of water that you add. I hope this is clear; there can be, at times so much water in the air, i.e. humidity, that the dough will absorb that moisture.

Just wondering if you could use regular pie crust or the ready to use pie crust rolled out. I love this idea and would love to try it for a family reunion but to buy rye flour for one recipe sounds like a waste to me.

If I evaluate the quality of the recipe by just the end result, then it's amazing. However, to get to it was a real mess, and it is due to the actual recipe - 12 table spoons of water was good at the end, because you need more water to keep the rye flour together (I weighted the ingredients). A disclaimer would be nice, as normally your pie dough is different and to treat it as a regular AP flour one is not completely right. Recipe makes much more dough than for an 8x12 pie, and lattice instructions are confusing, and for a person who's never done it before would be someone incorrect - it is not enough to just roll 8x12 again and have enough to do a lattice cover. Yes, I'd seriously bubbled over making some of the edges inedible .With all of that - I loved the rye flour, and likely will use it again, and the pie itself was great!

Hi Dasha, I appreciate your feedback. I'm not sure I understand your comment about the crust recipe being both too much and not enough. The instructions do state to err on the large side when rolling out the top crust, but maybe I did not make that clear enough. It seems as though you did end up using 12 Tablespoons of water to make the dough, so I am not sure what the problem was there.

I find with all pie doughs you have to add the water a little at a time until its right, and not necessarily by the exact amount called out for in the recipe. My dough turned out really good, but I was going off the little at a time until it came together (oh and cheated and used the cuisinart too).

Made the pie for a 4th of July party and it was a big hit. I will make this again. And am looking forward to trying this style of pie with different ingredients. I really liked the rye flour addition. I also found using the full 12 tablespoons of water, made a wet dough. But after chilling overnight, the dough was good for rolling out. I did have to make the dough, twice. I was trying convert ounces of flour to cups of flour. And was totally off in the first batch. But the second time, I weighed the 9 ounces and got a much better dough consistency. And I will probably use less water next time I make this dough.

Made this today for our 4th of July BBQ. OMG good. I added some lavender and thyme, just a bit, to the blueberry medley- and a touch less sugar. Didn't have time to go out for rye flour last night, so used all all purpose,but kicked myself this a.m for not subbing in a little bit of cornmeal. Thats what next times are for! And there will be for this one, it came out divine. And I think I'll be applying this free form idea to other pies in the future! Thank you!